Let’s give an airing, as quickly as possible, to the Liv Tyler–Evan Dando connection. Liv’s daddy is in Aerosmith, who are from Boston. Evan was in the Lemonheads, who were from Boston. Evan played Liv’s boyfriend in the 1995 film Heavy. The Lemonheads’ "C’mon Daddy," which Evan penned with the late Epic Soundtracks for 1996’s Car Button Cloth, was written from Liv’s perspective ("Didn’t know you were my daddy ’til the age of nine"). Liv’s new hubby, ex-Spacehog dude Royston Langdon, played on Evan’s recent comeback album Baby, I’m Bored (Bar/None). And at long last, Liv and Evan duet on a version of "Shots Is Fired" that appears on a B-side to Baby’s UK-only "Stop My Head" single. Dando finally gets around to bringing his touring band (including Come/Consonant guitarist Chris Brokaw) home with him for gigs at the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on Tuesday and the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Wednesday. Liv Tyler sold separately. Also sold separately: Evan’s pal and songwriting partner Ben Lee, who penned Bored’s most autobiographical tune, "All My Life," and who shows up at the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton tonight (Thursday, June 5).

Oops — forgot one last Evan-Liv connection: she recently hopped on stage with him to duet on the Velvets’ "I’ll Be Your Mirror." Speaking of which, don’t be surprised if, on his latest tour, Lou Reed pretends The Raven (Sire) — his recent loss-leading multi-disc set based on the works of fellow death-dwarf Edgar Allan Poe — never happened, and instead sticks to the VU and solo hits from the new NYC Man: The Ultimate Lou Reed Collection (RCA). Lou’s at the Calvin Theatre (413-584-1444) in Northampton on Friday; the Orpheum (617-931-2000) in Boston on Saturday; and the Meadowbrook Farm Musical Arts Center (603-293-4700) in Gilford, New Hampshire, on Sunday.

You don’t need to be an American woman to excel in Americana, as can be demonstrated by a pair of superb singer-songwriters in the area this week. Kasey Chambers, the smoldering Aussie country-rock siren, kicks off another US tour behind her pop-leaning Barricades and Brickwalls (Warner Bros) at the Calvin on Wednesday and hits the Berklee Performance Center (617-931-2000) in Boston next Friday, June 13. And Canadian alt-country phenom Kathleen Edwards, whose fantastic debut Failer (Zoe/Rounder) combines the charms of Lucinda Williams and Whiskeytown, is at the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Monday, and at the Space gallery (207-828-5600) in Portland on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Edwards’s labelmate and countrywoman, the smart, polished, adult-contemporary popsmith Sarah Harmer, is finishing the follow-up to her acclaimed You Were Here, and will work out some new tunes on a solo tour that hits the Iron Horse on Saturday before settling in for a two-night stand at the House of Blues (617-491-BLUE) in Cambridge next Thursday and Friday, June 12 and 13.

Issue Date: June 6 - 12, 2003
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